www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Parish Life & Evangelization Holy Supper - how traditional is traditional?

My Swedish family had a big feast on Christmas Eve, too. There were lots of dishes, but they did have meat. Many of the things mentioned here remind me of some of their customs. Pickled herring, creamed whitefish, homemade bread in a round loaf that they called the "hospitality loaf" all had their places.

This last reminds me of pictures I see of people greeting their bishops. My grandmother, of blessed memory, told me that in Sweden when she was growing up--turn of the last century--every guest was greeted with a hospitality loaf and a new one was baked each Saturday with the rest of the bread and rolls they baked for the week. To greet a guest at your door without a hospitality loaf was the equivalent of saying, "hit the road, Jack, you're not welcome here." She always had this type of round loaf in her house until she could no longer bake bread for herself.

BOB

I'm in Jim's parish and we've brought the Holy Supper to a more proximation of what we did living with Baba -- which was a pious, reverent dinner where we all dressed in Sunday/Holiday best and children were expected to have "prince and princess manners". But of course with the variety of ethnic backgrounds (we have Italian, French Canadian, Iraqi, Lebanese, German, Irish, and South African, to name a few!) and parental/family values we're bound to step on somebody's toes. Here are some the traditions, superstititons we did when I was little and I still do with my family:

--

oops, fat fingers.

-- wait for the first star (the youngest's job)
-- dress for dinner and no, nobody gets up or leaves before the final prayer, except to stand to pray.
-- a candle in the window (electric, of course so you don't start a fire) to let strangers know they are welcome
-- hay on the tablecloth to represent the manger
-- white candle in the middle of the table for the Christ child
-- an empty place setting to represent those who cannot be with us (living or deceased); also a representation that you've included Christ!
-- the mother dips the garlic in honey and makes the sign of the cross on each person's forehead starting with the oldest marriageable-age daughter.
-- reading of the Tropar & Kontakian & The Our Father
-- the 12 foods representing the 12 apostles (and , yes, I attended a Seder once and was amazed at the similarity!)
-- a toast of non-alocoholic wine and/or a sip of brandy (depending on which Baba's house I was in! LOL)
-- feed the animals tablescraps so they can participate in the meal (they were the first to see Jesus so are very important this night).

We didn't tie the table legs together, but I think we just might have to try that this year for our church's Holy Supper!

http://www.wirnowski.com/Carp/Nat_HolyNight.html

Bob, how about ludefisk? I've only looked at it, never tried it.

Diak:


Lutefisk is good stuff. Don't ever pass it up. In fact, if I'm behind you in the buffet line and you pass it up, it won't be there if you come back for seconds!

My grandmother also made something she called "fruit soup," a stewed collection of dried fruits--peaches, pears, raisins, apples, and some kind of little red addition that reminded me of fish eggs in size, but sweet.

But cut me some slack here. My family hasn't gathered for this type of Christmas Eve feast for the last 40 years. Maybe I'll call some of my cousins and see if they have any of the recipes since my Dad, his oldest brother, and his sisters are all dead save one sister who doesn't cook anything ethnic.

BOB

I've heard that called "kompot" as in compote.

Bob,

"My grandmother also made something she called "fruit soup," a stewed collection of dried fruits--peaches, pears, raisins, apples, and some kind of little red addition that reminded me of fish eggs in size, but sweet."

Pomegranate seeds?

In Christ,

John Segvich

I had to revive this post to reply to djs:

Yes my family always did that. This year I made a basin and put in U.S. quarters as well as whatever change we had lying around from other countries. The idea was to say a prayer for the whole world not just our own prosperity. We had several guests at Svati Vecher with us and they happily went along with all our traditions. It was really great.

I miss the dried mushrooms my Dyedo would gather from the woods by Harvey's Lake in PA. I make a stewed mushroom dish with bought dried and fresh mushrooms. A lot more variety is available today than in the past.

I would love to get that article!
My aunt taught me to make the "zaprashka" to mix into the cooking sauercraut. Ever heard of that?

with love and peace,
Nonna

Dear Nonna,

Thanks for reviving this thread. In the midst of the busy holiday season, I somehow missed it.

I found all the traditions and memories shared by posters here to be very interesting.

God bless,
Alice

Benedictine:

" . . . perhaps some other members of the forum remember or know about a type of host that was popular decades ago made of highly refined white flour that would melt in your mouth . . ."

Yes, I do remember the whtie refined flour hosts. I have received the whole wheat one too. They are very thin too. While in the Air Force in the early 70's I was stationed near St. Martin's Abbey near Lacey, WA. They used leavened bread, and broke it into pieces like we do in the Eastern Churches, and had Communion in the hand then too. I look on other Catholic forums and see that some parishes use illegal forms of bread for Communion. That is why I asked the question.

Dear Nonna:
Thank you for your reply! I am so glad to hear that others keep this tradition; I wonder about its origins and locality. Sorry, I couldn't find the Gourmet article on line, but I'll continue trying; it's just a page but quite a reverie.
"Zaprashka" is widely known (google it), but I confess that I was never much good with any kind of flour thickeners. Our innovation, along with the dried shitakes, is to use cornstarch as a thickener - and the soup takes on a glistening sheen.

Dear DJS,

You sound like quite the good cook!

You truly are full of surprises!

Alice

Mike,
Regarding your post from 2004 about the 7 fishes being Sicilian...there is a fish store smack in the middle of the Italian Market that combines '7 fishes' into a fish sausage link for Christmas.
Something different to try for our multi-ethnic Velijas!
Sam

That certainly makes the dinner of the seven fishes much, much easier to prepare for the modern American woman of Southern Italian descent!